Carrboro 14-0 with 2,000+ runner, 2,000+ passer

Wednesday

Back on July 30 when Carrboro High began practice, coach Jason Tudryn was at a loss about what to expect from his Jaguars, who were preparing for only their sixth season playing football.

Back on July 30 when Carrboro High began practice, coach Jason Tudryn was at a loss about what to expect from his Jaguars, who were preparing for only their sixth season playing football.

Nearly four months later, how about no losses?

“To be completely honest with you, we had no idea,” Tudryn said. “That’s a tribute to these guys. Everybody sets goals to be a champion, and these guys have done a great job of taking every week as its own opportunity.

“This is a new school. We’re only in our sixth season. This team has kind of gone out and said, ‘Hey, we want to be a conference champion and then we’ll take it from there,’ and they’ve played extremely hard every week.”

Hard is an understatement for a team that Tudryn said features 24 varsity players — some JVs were called up during the playoffs — and seven that go both ways.

The Jaguars are 14-0 heading into Friday night’s NCHSAA 2-AA East Regional final at Northside, which his also 14-0. So something has to give in a clash for the right to advance to the state finals on Dec. 1 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

Carrboro rallied to beat Reidsville 20-16 last Friday night to advance to the regional final.

In going undefeated and winning the Carolina 9 2-A/1-A Conference, Carrboro has run up some gaudy offensive numbers out of its spread attack, which is putting up 41.4 points a game and has scored more than 50 points in seven games.

Quarterback Alex McVeigh, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior, leads the Jaguars, having completed 56.2 percent of his passes (100 of 178) for 2,105 yards while also having run for 347 yards. His No. 1 target is 6-2, 205-pound junior wide receiver Marlin Johnson, who has 1,163 yards receiving and 13 touchdowns. Three other players have more than 200 yards receiving as well.

On the ground, Carrboro is led by Trai Sharp, a 5-9, 185-pound sophomore who was on the varsity as a freshman, has rushed for 2,244 yards and 33 touchdowns. Douglas Parrish, a 5-9, 175-pound senior, has rushed for 662 yards and 19 TDs.

“We’ve got a couple really good football players,” Tudryn said. “But it really starts with an offensive line that’s started I want to say now 22 consecutive football games. So that really helps. That kind of sums it up for you right there.”

Defensively, the Jaguars’ base scheme is a 4-3-4, but look for them to add some numbers to bolster its frontline against Northside’s strong running game. Up front, Carrboro is led by 6-3, 285-pound junior Ezavian Dunn and 6-0, 240-pound sophomore Luis Funes while 6-1, 220-pound senior Scott Peretin leads the linebacking corps.

The secondary is led by 5-9, 165-pound senior Shamek Dolby, who has six interceptions.

Given the lack of numbers, which Tudryn said included “a total” of 46 football players in the entire school, the coach said the Jaguars were “a real close group of guys.”

“It’s a really hard working group,” he said. “That number epitomizes where we’re at. We’ve got a lot of overachieving players play that play really hard. I guess that kind of sums us up.”

While Sharp figures “to be on the map soon enough” when it comes to college recruiters, Tudryn said most of his players are “blue-collar, hard-working guys” who aren’t likely to show up on television in college games on Saturday afternoons.

Much like Northside, which Tudryn said shared “a ton of similarities” with his team.

When asked about the Monarchs, Tudryn pointed to running back Dewayne Johnson, whom he called “a really good high school football player.” Ditto for wide receiver Josh Cabrera. Overall, he added, Northside is a team that plays extremely hard and is “extremely” competitive.

“So we’ve got our work cut out for us,” he said.

Do the Monarchs remind him of any team his Jaguars faced this year?

“Not really,” Tudryn said. “To be 14-0 at this point of the game, you’ve got to have something that really just doesn’t stick out on film or something that’s just kind of intangible, and they’ve got it.

“You can see how they win football games, whether it’d be on special teams, defensive interceptions and returns for touchdown. They just find a way to win. That’s what they’ve been really good at. And we’ve been blessed to be that way as well.

“It’s going to be one of those types of games where it comes down to who makes the least amount of mistakes and who executes in crucial situations.”

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